Hubbard County, MN – On August 4, 2021, in the first trial prosecuting water protectors since active construction of the Line 3 pipeline in the state, one defendant was acquitted, and the other was found guilty by a jury on two misdemeanors—public nuisance and unlawful…
A wave of prison abolition actions and demands have swept the United States every August since 1979 from inside the walls to outside. New groups in the Midwest such as Abolition Is a Practice and Community Not Cages (CNC) are carrying on the Black August…
Philadelphia, PA – Longtime Pennsylvania prisoner Arthur “Cetewayo” Johnson, age 69, was ordered released today after five decades in prison, 37 years of which he spent in solitary confinement. Johnson had been convicted in the 1970 murder of Jerome Wayfield, when he was just 18. The…
St. Paul, MN – Around the world there are millions of survivors of sexual assault and sexual violence, and for many of them, their stories go unheard and are rarely believed. In the U.S., nearly 1 in 5 women have been raped or have gone…
Indianapolis, IN – Less than three weeks before the murder trial of Tyler Newby is slated to begin, the family of Dorian Murrell, who Newby is believed to have shot and killed, held a press conference in front of the City-County building in downtown Indianapolis.…
Minneapolis, MN – In a landmark ruling, Minnesota Fourth District Judge Peter Cahill sentenced convicted murderer and former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin to over 22 years in prison for the killing of George Floyd. This is now the longest sentence ever given to a…
Saint Paul, MN – Nearly three years after Hardel Sherrell’s harrowing death in Beltrami County Jail, a legislative act named after him aims to stop the dozens of deaths in Minnesota jail cells. After losing her only son at the young age of 27, Del…
Faribault, MN – At least eleven people in Minnesota state prisons have died from COVID-19 as of February 17, 2021. Nearly 4,000 inmates, or two out of every five prisoners, have tested positive for the coronavirus. Families and advocates of prisoners have consistently staged protests,…
Minneapolis, MN – On New Year’s Eve, authorities in Minneapolis attacked a crowd of nearly 100 without warning during a national night of noise demos held against the prison systems and in solidarity with incarcerated people. Police arrested three dozen and charged five people with…
Lakewood, CO — As 2020 comes to an end, prison abolition advocates around the world will be continuing an annual tradition of demonstrating outside of prisons on New Year’s Eve.
A call for New Year’s Eve prison solidarity demonstrations was circulated earlier in December by…
St. Paul, MN – The Minnesota Board of Pardons announced Tuesday evening Myon Burrell’s life sentence will be commuted to 20 years and that he should be released immediately from the Stillwater Prison. Burrell was convicted as a teenager for the murder of 11-year-old Tyesha…
Sacramento, CA – An Oglala Lakota woman’s convicted killer had his sentence commuted earlier this year by California Governor Gavin Newsom, which made him eligible for parole seven years earlier than his original sentence. Rodney “Patrick” McNeal was found guilty of second-degree murder and on…
Saint Paul, MN – Charges against an Illinois man facing federal felonies from this summer’s uprising in Minneapolis showcase the tactics, techniques and procedures applied by the U.S. government against some of the more enthusiastic participants in the George Floyd rebellion.
Repressive responses by the…
Sacramento, CA – On Tuesday, October 20, the State of California granted parole to Rodney “Patrick” McNeal, who had been sentenced to 30-years-to-life on May 3, 2000, for the 1997 murder of his wife and unborn child. He was suspected for the brutal killing of…
Minneapolis, MN – Unintentional second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges have been upheld on Derek Chauvin while the third-degree murder charges were dropped in a pretrial ruling made by Judge Cahill on Thursday, October 21.
Responding to motions and orders filed in the run-up to…
Sartell, MN – Complaints from a nurse surfaced during a recent investigation into Hardel Sherrell’s 2018 death in the Beltrami County Jail. The whistleblowing complaints of medical neglect, further findings, and a new Kare 11 investigation has led to the director of the Minnesota’s Department…
Minneapolis, MN – Nearly a hundred people gathered in South Minneapolis to protest recent revelations of non-consensual hysterectomies sterilizing detained immigrant women in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Georgia.
Unicorn Riot was live for most of the protest at the Emiliano Zapata…
Minneapolis, MN – The pretrial hearings for the officers charged in the murder of George Floyd began on the morning of Friday, September 11. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the courthouse and chanted for hours as several motions were heard in court.
Hennepin County Attorney…
ST. PAUL, MN – 27-year-old Hardel Sherrell died in a cell in Minnesota’s Beltrami County Jail on Sept. 2, 2018. He died a tortuous death of medical neglect, suffering from an undiagnosed case of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare condition that attacks the nervous system.
Family…
Aurora, CO — On the morning of June 30, 2020, Pablo Mackleen Grijalva’s lawyer tried to contact him at the GEO Group’s ICE jail where he is detained, but to her shock, the officer on the phone told her he was not there. She immediately…
AURORA, CO – The encampment at the GEO Group’s ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado, is hosting a teach-in about reparations and racial justice. The Black Hammer will be leading the event. Yesterday was the end of week three for the encampment which is demanding the…
Bemidji, MN – “Pervasive” policy failures leading to “regular and gross violation[s] of Minnesota jail standards” were found in a second review of the death of 27-year-old Hardel Sherrell in Beltrami County Jail. The findings of the re-review were detailed in a May 15 letter…
Aurora, CO – Since February 20, 2020, a total of 141 detainees remain quarantined due to outbreaks of the flu and mumps at the sole Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Colorado, privately owned and operated by GEO Group. This facility is currently…
Alexandria, VA – On New Year’s Eve, supporters held a noise demonstration for imprisoned grand jury resistors Chelsea Manning and Jeremy Hammond, contributing to a swell of support that has grown for the past several weeks. The rally follows efforts to petition the judge overseeing…
Bemidji, MN – Shocking jail surveillance footage shows days of medical neglect that led to 27-year-old Hardel Sherrell’s death inside of Beltrami County Jail last September. Del Shea Perry, Hardel’s mother, recently filed a lawsuit against Beltrami County and dozens of other defendants, claiming medical…
Eastern District of Virginia – Imprisoned Anarchist hacker Jeremy Hammond was ruled in contempt of court today by U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga for refusing to testify in front of a federal grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA).
Hammond was…
Eastern District of Virginia – Imprisoned anarchist hacker Jeremy Hammond has been summoned to testify in front of a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. It is unclear what matters the federal grand jury is investigating but it is largely presumed to…
